Paragons of Heaven and Hell
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: Cole and Piper miss each other after his death and long for what they both believe could not have been while never realizing just how wrong the thoughts they take as fact are. Het.


Title: "Paragons of Heaven and Hell"  
Author: Pirate Turner  
Rating: R  
Summary: Cole and Piper miss each other after his death and long for what they both believe could not have been while never realizing just how wrong the thoughts they take as fact are.  
Warnings: Het  
Word Count (excluding heading): 1,075  
Feedback: Yes, please!  
Archive: WWOMB, -- Anybody else, ask, and I'll probably grant permission.  
Disclaimer: Piper and Phoebe Halliwell, Cole Turner, all other characters mentioned within, and Charmed are & TM their respective owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Everything else is & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

He's walking down the boardwalk in a little village by the sea, far away from the place he'd dared to be so bold as to call his home only months ago, when the aromas hit him. He stops and lifts his dark, curly head to catch another scent. His eyes drift shut, and a sound of delicious satisfaction escapes from deep within his throat.

Passer-bys think he just likes the scent of freshly baked cookies, but it's not just the cookies Cole smells and far more that he remembers. He smells vanilla hovering in the air, as well, and it's those two scents that take his mind whirling back to the woman he knew and loved, the one who smells like freshly-baked cookies, vanilla, and all the other yummy concoctions she was always creating when their lives were happier.

She was the brightest, kindest, and sweetest soul he's ever had the pleasure of knowing, and he had been completely enraptured by the spell of love she'd never tried to weave and he doubted she'd ever even expected of setting upon his lowly Demon heart. After all, it was her sister he'd been supposed to love, but it was Piper herself who Cole had truly fallen for.

It was Piper who he had ached to hold in his arms, sworn secretly to protect no matter the cost, and yearned for even just a moment spent in her company. It was Piper would could chase away his deepest worries with only a smile for such a long time that Cold had dared to believe that maybe his life could be good again, that maybe _he_ could be good despite all the things that Phoebe told him. She had claimed to believe in him but had turned away from him when he'd needed her the most.

Unlike her sister, Piper had never lied to him. She had been honest, often brutally so, at every turn. That honesty was only one of hundreds of aspects of her character that had made her shine in his dark life like a paragon of ultimate goodness. He had tried so hard to reach her pedestal but had failed miserably, and now forever her light, beauty, and love will remain unreachable by him.

Cole's head drops, and his hands shove deeper into the pockets of his trousers as his soul darkens once more from the knowledge that Piper's light will never shine for him. He whispers her name on the soft breeze as he moves on, seeking only death now that he knows he can never have her love . . .

* * *

Hundreds of miles away, a certain Witch raises her raven-tressed head as tingles sweep through her. She reaches up and rubs her ears, knowing she couldn't possible have heard what she thought she had or, rather, who. A tear falls from her eyes as she tries to deny it and the feelings churning in her heart and is quickly followed by another. "Cole," she whispers, answering the call of her heart.

* * *

And on an island far, far away, he hears, but he, too, denies for there is no greater impossibility, to his way of thinking, than that Piper could love him. She is everything bright and shining -- beauty, honesty, purity, goodness, sweetness, and perhaps the only truly, completely good soul left alive on the face of the planet. There is no way she could ever lower herself to love a wretched, wicked Demon such as himself. Her words ring in his ears from when she told him the last time they were alone together that he was evil and had best stay away from her sisters or she'd vanquish him herself.

Oh how he ached to be vanquished and stay dead for without her love, or even tolerance, his existence was more brutally cruel than an eternity in Hell! His life was Hell, and she was the gatekeeper, turning the key and locking him ever deeper into the abyss of misery his life had become.

He'd tried so hard to be good out of hope that she might one day look at him with just a fraction of the kindness he watched her constantly bestow upon others glimmering in her beautiful, brown eyes. Sometimes he thinks that if only she'd known the sacrifice he had made for them, allowing the evils within Pandora's box to consume him rather than them, things might have been different. She might have understood. She might have found the strength and compassion within her wonderfully huge heart to forgive him and give him another chance, even if she would never love him.

But each and every time he thought such, he reminded himself that it was impossible for she would never look at him as anything more than her sister's Demon boyfriend and a threat to her family. Her heart would always belong to another, and though it was big enough to save the world time and again and love almost every person in that world, he would never be in that grouping of those lucky enough to have her love.

What Cole doesn't know is just how wrong those thoughts he takes as fact are for as Piper sits alone in the Manor that he once called home, she longs for one more chance though she, too, believes it can do no good for it was her sister, not herself, who he loved and her sister who killed him. If only he'd ever once looked at her with the love and adoration he had bestowed upon Phoebe, she would have stopped at nothing to cure him. But it was not her love he wanted and not her place to risk her whole world to save him. It was, however, her place to love and protect her sisters and that she had done at the cost of her own heart.

"Just once," they cry together though forever apart. "If you could have only loved me just once . . . " Their whole world would have been different, their love making everything far brighter and saving both their souls and hearts, but alas, it was never to be and so each sought death in their own ways, never knowing happiness again for they no longer had each other to cling to even if as nothing more than allies. Yet, if only just once their love could have been allowed, eternal bliss would have been theirs.

**The End**

Author's Note: If you enjoyed this story, or any of my other writings, I hope you'll consider joining my friends and I at a brand new fan fic/art site we're creating called Ficcers Unite. We welcome all fandoms, pairings (slash and het), and even no pairings at all, and we'll also be RPing a world where Disney and Marvel comes together in one universe. Come on over and check us out at ficcersuniteDOTproboardsDOTcom today!


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